Monday, May 7, 2012

Smartphone Apps to Track (& Encourage) Your Weight Loss

With the overwhelming number of fitness-related smartphone apps, it's hard to choose which one is best for you and your goals. The American Council on Exercise recently asked fitness professionals to tell them what their favorites are. Below are a few of the top-rated apps and short description of each.

MyFitnessPal: Here you can keep track of the food you eat and the activity you do. While most apps on the market tend to emphasize either workouts or nutrition, this one manages to balance both. Users rave about the large food database to count your calories and how easy it is to scan the barcodes of foods to add to your diary.

RunKeeper: Best for runners or those looking to increase their cardio, this app tracks runs with your GPS-enabled phone and programs interval workouts. You have the option to purchase "fitness classes" in the app, which are preset programs to help users lose weight or train for a new race distance.

Fooducate: Use the app to scan a product barcode, see product highlights (good & bad), compare products, and select better alternatives. Perfect for those of us who don't have the time to analyze every label of every item you pick up in the supermarket or have trouble understanding the labels.

If you've tried any of these apps or you have a few favs of your own, please comment below and let us know what you think!

1 comment:

Sean said...

Fooducate is easily my most frequently used app. Though its standards are fairly strict, its very easy to use and understand. Though I spend some extra time in the supermarket because of it, you can just go through and scan the various options of one set product you buy frequently and even just use their alternates option to find the one product that is best for you and in the future you know to only get that one.